Guidemaster: Fitness trackers to consider before buying a smartwatch

Fitness bands are still around, and one of these might be the best wristband for you.

The smartwatch hasn't swallowed up the fitness tracker yet. While many consumers are intrigued by the Apple Watch, Android Wear devices, and the like, old-school fitness trackers can still be useful and available for the right price. The main goal of these devices remains simply tracking activity: from daily movement to intense exercise to steps, heart rate, and sleep. Most of today's fitness trackers haven't changed much aesthetically, either. They're still, by and large, wristbands.

Most modern fitness trackers are meant to be worn all day long. And many now have basic "smartwatch" features, so you don't have to fully sacrifice if you're primarily looking for a wearable to help you get in shape.

With so many devices sharing the same basic goals and set of features, it can be hard to decipher which tracker is right for you. But from our testing, there are some fitness trackers that stand out among the rest—some for their thoughtful applications, others for their versatility, and some for their focused approach to fitness training. So with spring on the horizon and 2018 resolutions still holding strong, we've looked back at the fitness trackers we've reviewed recently and selected the best ones for all kinds of users.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Fitbit Alta HR: The best for the most of us

The easier it is to track fitness, the more likely people are to actually do it. Fitbit's $149 Alta HR is a device that makes tracking movement, exercise, and sleep so convenient that you might as well just stick with it. Its slim design makes it unassuming and comfortable on the wrist, and it has a bunch of interchangeable bands available so you can switch up its look to match any outfit or occasion.

Specs at a glance: Fitbit Alta HR

Price

$149-$179

Heart rate monitoring

Yes, continuous

GPS

No

Water resistance

Rain-, sweat-, and splash-proof

Smartphone alerts

Yes (call, text, and calendar)

Sizes

Small, large, and extra-large

Battery life

Seven days

While that feature may induce eye-rolls from some potential users or wearable skeptics, it's actually quite important for retention. The easier it is to wear a fitness tracker each day—regardless of what you're doing—the more likely it is that you won't take it off once and then never put it back on.

Despite its small size, the Alta HR includes an accelerometer and continuous heart rate monitor inside. It'll track your heart rate from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you wake up the following morning—and even in doing so, it has a battery life of seven days. The only time you'll want to take the Alta HR off your wrist is when you bathe, since the device isn't waterproof.

With continuous heart rate tracking, the Alta HR provides an interesting look into your overall health, in addition to important stats achieved during exercise. It measures your resting heart rate, your pulse throughout the day and during the night while you sleep, and heart rate during exercise, which is then sectioned and graphed into various heart rate zones in the Fitbit app.

The exercise heart rate graphs are particularly important because they can tell you how hard your heart needs to work during different workouts. Heart rate during sleep informs the Sleep Stages and Insights data in the Fitbit app, which the company introduced last year to give users feedback into how exercise and daily habits affect sleep as well as suggestions on how to get a better night's sleep based on those habits.

While the Alta HR has a tappable touchscreen that lets you scroll through the time and various daily activity stats, you don't need to use the touchscreen when you want to track a workout. The device uses Fitbit's Smart Track technology, which allows it to automatically recognize and record activities, including walking, running, and biking, whenever you're doing them for more than 10 minutes.

There's even a general "sports" category that it will automatically track, which should record any periods of activity in which your heart rate is raised. Rather than fumbling through a list of sport profiles and picking the type of exercise you want to try, you can just start working out and let the Alta HR do the rest.

Further Reading

Unlike most modern smartwatches, the Alta HR takes a limited approach to smartphone notifications by only delivering call, text, and calendar alerts to your wrist. For those who use the default phone, messaging, and calendar apps, these alerts are some of the most crucial to receive even when your smartphone isn't in front of you.

The Alta HR connects to Fitbit's mobile app for Android and iOS, which has been the best fitness tracker companion app for quite some time. Aside from its friendly UI, the app makes it easy to see all the data tracked automatically from any Fitbit device in addition to making it easy for the user to input data like amount of water consumed, food eaten, and more. The HR also has plenty of fitness challenges you can complete based on your location, as well as challenges you can do with friends and family or to simply beat your own record.

The Fitbit software experience, combined with the simplicity and convenience of the Alta HR, make this device the best for most users—whether you're one of the many people who made a fitness-related New Year's resolution or one who regularly changes up their workout routine. For $149, the Alta HR provides the most essential fitness features that most people can and will find useful, and its long battery life encourages you to rarely take the device off. It's the device to choose if you want the best value for your money and a device that you won't abandon in a few, short months.

The Good

Accurate and continuous heart rate monitoring that influences much of the fitness data collected.

Misfit is known for its minimalistic approach to wearable tech, and the company's $79 Ray tracker might be the most versatile of them all. While Misfit has expanded over the years to make full-fledged smartwatches, hybrid watches, and other devices, the Ray is a simple, cylindrical tracker that can have as much personality as you want it to have. With seven module colors and numerous types of interchangeable bands, the Ray could be a nondescript bracelet or a fashion statement depending on how you dress it up. The M.Y. Misfit option lets you personalize the Ray—and a bunch of other Misfit devices—before you even buy it.

Misfit makes sport, stainless steel, nylon, leather, nylon tassel, and double leather wrap bands for the Ray, with the most expensive adding just $20 to the cost of the device. That means you could invest in a few band options to make the Ray a wardrobe staple without breaking the bank. In addition, Misfit sells a necklace attachment so you can wear the tracker around your neck and give your wrist a break.

The small tube is perfectly sized to hold fitness tracker tech while also masquerading as a piece of jewelry. Inside the Ray are an accelerometer, a vibration motor, and tiny LED lights that let it track daily activity and sleep, as well as receive select smartphone notifications.

Since it has no screen or buttons, the Ray isn't a device to be interacted with like the Alta HR—but most of us don't interact with the jewelry we're wearing. Like a regular bracelet or necklace, the Ray is meant only to be worn and left alone to track your every step.

However, Misfit does give power-users the option to use the Ray as a Misfit Link remote. Link is the company's service that most of its devices connect to in order to control various actions like turning on a smart lightbulb, taking a photo on your smartphone, or controlling music playback. You don't have to use Link on the Ray, but it's another aspect of its versatility that makes this device a stylish and functional companion to wear all day long.

The Good

Many interchangeable band options and module finishes to choose from at affordable prices.

The Bad

Tracks only general fitness stats since it doesn't include many sensors.

Which trackers let you keep and own YOUR data? Which trackers use an open-source program to visualize your data? That's a really important spec.

Unless, oh, wait, none of them do.

My Garmin is not one of those listed but I find it hard to believe that they differentiate; when I connected it's charging cable to a computer it shows up as a USB drive with my data accessible. Those I poked into were XML.

Conversely, Fitbit most definitely does not let you access or keep your data other than through their app.

Please, please include no app functionality without an internet connection in the ugly column for any Garmin device. Their hardware is great. But, the app does not work at all if there is no internet connection. I mean it doesn't even sync the device.

If you are out in the woods or on the go without a data connection, Garmin app is completly non-functional.

I would also advice to do some fitness before buying any gear. You can literally go outside and do some walking/jogging/stretching without spending anything on electronics or fancy clothing. I know, crazy!

What puts me off from trackers, and I could use one... is the 'social network' aspect of their supportive infrastructure from hardware (a paired device required) and software (connected apps and Internet connection.

I love my Microsoft Band 2. It's a shame that Microsoft keeps trying to open new doors for themselves and abandons them before they ever really had a chance (Zune, Band, Win10 Mobile, etc.) as most of that stuff is pretty great.

I've been looking to update from my Band 2 to something new for both me and my wife, but haven't really found something worthwhile. This article has some decent products, but nothing that piques my interest.

Please, please include no app functionality without an internet connection in the ugly column for any Garmin device. Their hardware is great. But, the app does not work at all if there is no internet connection. I mean it doesn't even sync the device.

If you are out in the woods or on the go without a data connection, Garmin app is completly non-functional.

I forgot about this issue when I returned my Fenix3.Sad they still haven't addressed this.

I recently upgraded from the Fitbit Alta to the Alta HR after my USB charging adapter broke. I'd been thinking about it for a while as I was interested in the heart monitoring improvements.

For anyone else currently with an Alta, considering the upgrade, I thought I'd give my two cents:

- The battery life, which was already good, is noticeably better with the Alta HR. I get a full two days extra out of my battery.

- The sleep tracking is out-of-this-world better compared to the original Alta. I always felt that the original Alta underestimated the amount (and quality) of sleep that I was getting. The new Alta HR provides excellent feedback on the length and type of sleep that I get. The new improved sleep charts seem to accurately record the type sleep I get, correctly showing when I'm woken from dreams etc.

- The new strap, complete with buckle, is a little bit annoying. I personally preferred the strap from the original. But, if I'm not mistaken, you can simply switch out the new for the old.

I've been a happy Fitbit user since 2013, when I started out with the One. The charging cable breakage with my (original) Alta is the first problem I've had.

Please, please include no app functionality without an internet connection in the ugly column for any Garmin device. Their hardware is great. But, the app does not work at all if there is no internet connection. I mean it doesn't even sync the device.

If you are out in the woods or on the go without a data connection, Garmin app is completly non-functional.

I forgot about this issue when I returned my Fenix3.Sad they still haven't addressed this.

Assuming you stopped using the app when you returned your watch, confirmed just now. Garmin Connect will launch and display historic data with no internet connection, and acknowledge a watch as present if Bluetooth is enabled, but will not sync. The on-watch summaries remain completely accessible but the higher-fidelity data is unavailable on either device.

Do buy anything from Fitbit, their products tend to die in a matter of weeks.

*Paid Advertisement Brought to You By Garmin

Maybe not weeks but in my experience and those of people I know, FitBit products really do tend to die very quickly. They're flashy but the quality and longevity isn't there. After my 4th warrantied replacement in a year, I kinda gave up on FitBit (and fitness trackers as a whole) and haven't bothered since.

But connected GPS is arguably the best feature the Charge 2 has that the Alta HR doesn't. On a run, walk, bike ride, or other outdoor workout, the Charge 2 uses the GPS in your smartphone to record your route, including a map along with the rest of your workout stats in the Fitbit app.

This is not quite right. The main advantage of the "connected GPS" on the Charge 2 is that it shows your distance/pace stats on the band's screen during the workout.

The phone and Fitbit app are doing all the work. If you just want a record (map) of your route, the Alta HR+phone works essentially the same. You just won't be able to look at your wrist to see your distance and pace.

I don't think you can count something as "GPS: Yes" when it just uses your smartphone GPS. I can just use my smartphone GPS without a wearable, the value comes from being able to leave your smartphone at home when you go for a jog/hike.

Do buy anything from Fitbit, their products tend to die in a matter of weeks.

*Paid Advertisement Brought to You By Garmin

Maybe not weeks but in my experience and those of people I know, FitBit products really do tend to die very quickly. They're flashy but the quality and longevity isn't there. After my 4th warrantied replacement in a year, I kinda gave up on FitBit (and fitness trackers as a whole) and haven't bothered since.

Do buy anything from Fitbit, their products tend to die in a matter of weeks.

*Paid Advertisement Brought to You By Garmin

Maybe not weeks but in my experience and those of people I know, FitBit products really do tend to die very quickly. They're flashy but the quality and longevity isn't there. After my 4th warrantied replacement in a year, I kinda gave up on FitBit (and fitness trackers as a whole) and haven't bothered since.

Precisely. My Charge 2 is nearly a year old, and survives through 2-3 TKD workouts a week, including sparring. My only "complaint" is the soft screen - it has several scratches - but they don't seem to impact functionality. Was also $129 at WalMart.

Don't buy anything from Fitbit, their products tend to die in a matter of weeks.

Shame you've had bad luck. I think the more advanced the hardware the more likely they fail. I've had a fitbit one that's been running strong for almost 5 years now, including one trip through a washing machine.

Only thing that sucks is the clip for the one keeps falling apart. I've had to replace it twice and the replacement cost is $15 a pop which is stupid expensive!

FWIW I got my Mi Band 2 for $20. It doesn't have GPS (uses your phone for that) but aside from that it pretty much matches the feature set of every other band quite well. It's by no means perfect (some have issues with the heart rate monitor, mine seems perfect there) but for $20...

Please, please include no app functionality without an internet connection in the ugly column for any Garmin device. Their hardware is great. But, the app does not work at all if there is no internet connection. I mean it doesn't even sync the device.

If you are out in the woods or on the go without a data connection, Garmin app is completly non-functional.

I forgot about this issue when I returned my Fenix3.Sad they still haven't addressed this.

Fenix5s is the same. It can read current HRM data and total steps in the app as well as do notification pushes, but anything complicated like gps tracks, exercise info, HRM graphs, or data analysis all requires a connection to Garmin servers and (apparently) gets piped back to the app. Sync speed is also quite slow because it's BT4, which does maybe 1 KB/sec. But when you have network access, the app itself is very snappy and incremental syncs are maybe a second or two, unless it decides to push ephemeris data or a fw upgrade, the latter of which seems pretty frequent (started on 3.30, now on 7.60?).

I can plug it into USB and get the data though, if I wanted to analyze it on my own, but it's not convenient.

The main reason I use a fitness tracker instead of a "true" smart watch is battery life. I don't want to charge my smart watch every other day. I charge the fenix5s maybe once a week. I'd much rather keep the battery life respectable than use smart watch niceties like bt audio playback and for the price of the device, I paid a premium for that battery life.

Any opinion on the Garmin Vivosport? I was looking for something with native GPS, and that seemed one of the better options.

I bought one couple of months back and it's been excellent. Good battery life. Solid and easy to use. Waterproof and GPS. I looked for alternatives but I think only way to get all that is to buy smartwatch which are both pricier and bigger.

Conversely, Fitbit most definitely does not let you access or keep your data other than through their app.

This is not really true. They don't integrate with Healthkit or Google Fit , but you can export quite a bit of Fitbit data. Steps, floors, distance traveled, distance ascended, plus all the activity times for various levels are all part of the daily activity summary, which can be exported or easily saved in a Google spreadsheet using IFTTT. No heart rate data, workout or minute-by-minute logging, though. Although there may be some other way to get at that.

I have the miband and also the miband2. They work very well, the 2 has a display, the old one not.

The laser pulse monitor on the 2 made a nasty burn on my wrist, but you can turn it off. I have heard that other continuous pulse devices burn some people, so its not just the 2. It was quite ominous looking, and it happened without any pain to notify.

I then in reaction got the original version for something like $10 on ebay, which has no pulse monitor and no counter display. Works fine. Pairs with gadgetbridge, which is not perfect, but it works.

Batteries on both last forever, longer on the original, which is a bit smaller and lighter. They both have different color bands if that's important to you. They both track steps very accurately. They don't do weights however, but they have an input facility in the app where you can enter and incorporate other exercise that they do not track.

I have the miband and also the miband2. They work very well, the 2 has a display, the old one not.

The laser pulse monitor on the 2 made a nasty burn on my wrist, but you can turn it off. I have heard that other continuous pulse devices burn some people, so its not just the 2. It was quite ominous looking, and it happened without any pain to notify.

I then in reaction got the original version for something like $10 on ebay, which has no pulse monitor and no counter display. Works fine. Pairs with gadgetbridge, which is not perfect, but it works.

Batteries on both last forever, longer on the original, which is a bit smaller and lighter. They both have different color bands if that's important to you. They both track steps very accurately. They don't do weights however, but they have an input facility in the app where you can enter and incorporate other exercise that they do not track.

I love my Microsoft Band 2. It's a shame that Microsoft keeps trying to open new doors for themselves and abandons them before they ever really had a chance (Zune, Band, Win10 Mobile, etc.) as most of that stuff is pretty great.

I've been looking to update from my Band 2 to something new for both me and my wife, but haven't really found something worthwhile. This article has some decent products, but nothing that piques my interest.

What puts me off from trackers, and I could use one... is the 'social network' aspect of their supportive infrastructure from hardware (a paired device required) and software (connected apps and Internet connection.

In general, I couldn't agree with you more - the 'social networkiness' (R) of a device does not appeal to me on any level.

But in practice, I'd recommend that you give it a shot anyway - at least for [product return window] - 2 days. I've been using a Fitbit AltaHR for several weeks, and don't find that it bothers me at all. You can configure alerts, the gentle prodding to get up and move, etc. to be pretty non-intrusive. Beyond that, you can set up an account with a burner email addy and generic info. That account can be set to private and so forth. As mentioned earlier, I don't think their system allows you to pull your raw or processed data out for use elsewhere.

Beyond that, the little thing has gotten me more active (and I'm not someone who's normally into fitness activities). Trying to lose a few before the wedding ;-)